Keep it in the family

It's my turn to set this week's challenge over at Daring Cardmakers. It's World Family Day today so I chose the topic of "family". When I chose the topic I had no idea that it would have extra poignancy as many of us are not able to see our families at the moment because of the lockdown restrictions.

I chose a stamp that has “family” in its name and I reckoned that maybe we could all do with a bit of owlish wisdom to help us through the tough times.

Stamps:
Owl Family (Crafty Individuals)
Sentiment from Big Day Today (Waltzingmouse Stamps, no longer with us)

Paper:
Watercolour 

Ink:
Versafine by Tsukineko (Vintage Sepia)
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Antique Linen, Tea Dye, Vintage Photo, Walnut Stain, Blueprint Sketch, Mowed Lawn, Spiced Marmalade)

Other:
Stitched rectangle dies A6 size (Paper Rose Studio)

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you are staying safe and well.

Inky!

Rizwana is setting her first challenge for us over at Daring Cardmakers this week - she'd like to see some inky backgrounds.

I have two quite different projects to share for this one but they both use the same basic technique - add some ink to a sheet of acetate, spritz with water and add to a sheet of heavy cardstock or watercolour paper.

For this bird card I stamped the image first and masked it, then added the inky background in a pale blue for a subtle effect. I painted the berries in green in the hope they'd look more like leaf buds for a more spring-time feel.

Stamps:
Blue bird with branch and berries (Crafty Individuals)
Sentiment from Big Day Today (Waltzingmouse Stamps, no longer with us)

Paper:
Tim Holtz watercolour

Ink:
Versafine by Tsukineko (Onyx Black)
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Mustard Seed, Salty Ocean, Mowed Lawn, Vintage Photo, Walnut Stain, Tumbled Glass)

Other:
Stitched Rectangle dies A6 size (Paper Rose Studio)

The second project features more postcards for my dad and brother.

I added three different blues to some watecolour paper, building up layers using the acetate technique. Then I stared at them for ages trying to figure out what to do with them. I finally settled on a VE Day theme and added some bunting and stamped numbers since we're commemorating 75 years this year.

The blues lifted quite well from the open flag areas just with water but I decided I wanted a cleaner white so those are painted with a bit of gesso.

Stamps:
Artsy Banners (Crafty Secrets, no longer with us)
A&P Numbers (Ma Vinci's Reliquary, no longer with us)

Paper:
Watercolour

Ink:
Tim Holtz Distress by Ranger (Tumbled Glass, Salty Ocen, Blueprint Sketch, Barn Door)
Mid tone ink by Hero Arts (Charcoal)
Versafine by Tsukineko (Onyx Black)

Other:
Gesso
Microglaze

Thanks for stopping by, if you fancy getting inky to distract yourself in lockdown why not come join us?

Card chain - April

I'm late for reveal day at Card Chain Challenge again - I'm sure I'm not alone in finding the days blurring into each other at the moment! Hope everyone's finding ways to cope and stay as sane and happy as possible.

Our options for April included the colour scheme of plum, lilac and black and the theme of hats. I couldn't find the stamp I originally planned to use so I revisted an old favourite from the long-defunct Tanda stamps.

My card went to Suzanne in Pennsylvania this time so it's a single layer to keep it light and flat for airmailing.

Stamps:
Retro Ladies (Tanda Stamps, no longer with us)
Say It All (Hero Arts, retired)

Paper:
Bristol board

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Graphite Black)
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Shaded Lilac, Dusty Concord)

Other:
Momento markers (Sweet Plum, Lulu Lavender)
Copic marker (Eggshell - used for skin)
Black fineliner
Stencil cut with Spellbinder Fancy Lattice die

Thanks for stopping by, may you and yours stay safe and well.

May's elements

It's Dawn setting the challenge over at Daring Cardmakers this week - as it's the first Friday of a new month it's an elemental one, just choose at least three elements from the picture to kick start your project.

A neighbour across the road was celebrating a big milestone birthday this week. We popped a bottle of champagne into a gift bag for him so I took inspiration from the tall glasses in the photo and made a card to tie in with the gift.

Other inspiration elements are yellow and green from the colour scheme and stacked squares. I used gold emobssing powder for the sentiment so that it's opaque over the stems of the glasses. There's some clear Wink of Stella going on so the champagne has some sparkle.

Stamps:
Champagne Celebration (Crafters Companion)
Birthday (Letter It by Ranger)

Paper:
Bristol board
DCWV

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Graphite Black)
Versmark by Tsukineko

Other:
Copic markers
Clear Wink of Stella pen
Square dies (Spellbinders)
Giold gel pen
Gold detail embossing powder

Here's our inspiration picture this month:

Thanks for stopping by, stay safe and well.

Keep walking

More postcards for my dad and brother. Walking seemed to be figuring large in the news (Captain Tom’s fantastic fundraising efforts with his laps of his garden capturing hearts and minds) and in people’s lives more generally as their daily exercise. So, a walking theme it was...

I stamped the boots simply and just added a halo of pale blue round them, grounded them with a numbers border (to represent step count) and used alphabet stamps to create the wording, adding a bit of colour with a marker as they’re outline letters.

I’m tending to add a bit of Microglaze to my postcards these days, just to give them a bit of protection as they go through the post. I just apply with my finger and once it’s buffed with a bit of kitchen towel the application is completely smooth and invisible.

Stamps:
Combat boots (Deep Red Stamps)
Alphabet set (Hero Arts)
Numbers border (Kaisercraft)

Paper:
Bristol board

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Graphite Black)
Tim Holtz Distress Oxide by Ranger (Evergreen Bough)

Other:
Copic markers
Corner Chomper
Microglaze

Thanks for stopping by, hope you are keeping well.

Creative Chaos

Svenja is setting our challenge over at Daring Cardmakers this week - she'd like to see some sheet music on our projects.

I couldn’t find my book of old and damaged sheet music so I printed a freebie score onto copy paper (it’s Beethoven —Für Elise— if any musically literate folk are trying to make it out through the other stuff here!)

I use my Gelli plate to do a print from a magazine onto the musical score, tinted it with Distress inks, stamped some circles and a sentiment (which I curved slightly before stamping to follow the shape of her face a bit more closely). The circles have a tiny bit of grey shading to give them some depth.

Creative chaos is a polite term for the usual state of my craft room!

Stamps:
Limor Circles (Indigo Blu)
Creative Chaos (Visible Image)

Paper:
Plain copy paper
Black

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Graphite Black)
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Tattered Rose, Picked Raspberry)
Tim Holtz Distress Oxide by Ranger (Wilted Violet)

Other:
Copic markers
Gelli plate 
Black acrylic paint
Brayer

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you and yours are keeping safe and well.

More postcards

I'm still making postcards to send to my dad and brother during lockdown. I managed to forget to photograph last week's (featuring big fat bees) but remembered this week - butterflies to celebrate the little critters being back out in force in our garden and along the lane.

The usual postcard etiquette is at play here - single layer, no embellishments so there's no risk of anything coming loose and messing up sorting equipment etc. A bit of drop shadow on the big butterfly, done with a couple of grey markers, gives the design an illusion of depth.

Stamps:
Wings (Darkroom Door)

Paper:
Bristol board

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Graphite Black)
Shadow ink by Hero Arts (Soft Granite)
Tim Holtz Distress Oxide by Ranger (Twisted Citron)

Other:
Copic markers
Cressida stencil (Memory Box)
Corner Chomper

Thanks for stopping by, hope you are staying safe and well.

CAS with some sparkle!

Dawn has set the challenge for us over at Daring Cardmakers this week - she'd like to see clean and simple cards with a dash of sparkle.

For saying I tend towards CAS in any case, I had a nightmare coming up with this and I’m not convinced I like it now!

I’m still working my way through a stash of stamps I bought when they were on sale and I have birthday and Christmas presents uninked as well so I’m trying hard not to buy new stuff!

Stamps:
Creative Chaos (Visible Image)
Essential Messages (Hero Arts)

Paper:
Bristol board 

Ink:
Versamark by Tsukineko 
Versafine by Tsukineko (Onyx Black)
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Broken China)

Other:
Detail white embossing powder
Zig Clean Colour markers (pink, red, blue)
Sequins
Fineline marker

Thanks for stopping by, remember to stay home for everybody’s sake even if the Bank Holiday weather in the UK makes it tempting to go out and about!

Spring postcards

I made more postcards to send to my dad and brother  - the first ones are here if you’d like a peep - inspired by thoughts of spring. In Covid-19 related news for the week was that more people are hearing birdsong as the world goes quiet in other ways so a bird seemed like a good way to go.

This handsome stamp and a pale blue evoked a spring vibe, I thought - he is called “spring bird” after all! We have both thrushes and blackbirds busy in the garden at the moment finding nesting materials.

I masked the bird's body before stencilling the background so those lovely woodcut-style lines stayed white and crisp.

The theme of the current Lost Coast Designs challenge is spring - all the challenge details are here and this time around I’m taking advantage of the fact you don’t have to use Lost Coast or Carmen’s Veranda stamps to play along, all rubber or clear stamping is welcome! If you’re tempted to break out some spring time images or colours why not play along too?

Stamps:
Spring Bird (Bloom Arts Stamps - store is now on Etsy)
Sentiment from Wildflowers (Crafty Secrets, no longer with us)
On the Desk (Cornish Heritage Farms, no longer with us)

Paper:
Bristol board 

Ink:
Versafine by Tsukineko (Onyx Black)
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Tumbled Glass)

Other:
Strobes stencil (Visible Image)

Thanks for stopping by, stay safe and healthy.

Card Chain Challenge - March reveal!

I'm a day late but the Card Chain Challenge reveal for March is up. My card went to Linda in Minnesota this time.

From the options on offer I went for the colour scheme (lemon. lime, sky blue) and the theme of "things with wings" to make a clean and simple card that was good for airmail.

The butterfly is coloured with a Zig Clean Colour marker and a damp paintbrush to spread the colour for varied intensity.

The fact that there are three different sizes of each circle in the Indigo Blu stamp set means you can compose your own background quite easily with just a bit of masking.

Stamps:
Wings (Darkroom Door)
Limor Circles (Indogo Blu)

Paper:
Bristol board

Ink:
Versafine by Tsukineko (Onyx Black)
Tim Holtz Distress Oxide by Ranger (Twisted Citron)
Jenni Bowlin ink by Ranger (Lemon Drop)

Other:
Spellbinder die (Phrases Set 1)
Corner Chomper
Zig Clean Colour marker

Hope you and yours are staying safe and well in these strange times. Thanks for stopping by!